Coach Clay Thomas Wolfe, arrested for federal child pornography, accused of impersonating a teenager on Snapchat
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Federal investigators today arrested an assistant volleyball coach at New Lexington High School on charges of sexually exploiting youth and transmitting, receiving and possessing child pornography. The charges against him were made public today. Clay Thomas Wolfe, 28, of Junction City, is accused of using the Snapchat messaging app to impersonate a 15-year-old girl to mislead teenagers into sending her photographs and videos sexually explicit. The allegations come from the United States Attorney’s Office.
During the 2022-2023 school year, he worked for New Lexington Schools as an assistant volleyball coach in the girls’ program. A request for feedback from the district was not answered. According to information provided by FBI investigators, there are more than a hundred victims, some of whom are as young as ten and eleven years old. Chillicothe is one of the towns where one of the victims lives. The Southern District of Ohio has jurisdiction over a number of Ohio communities, including Chillicothe. The charging documents said he admitted to receiving child pornography since 2018 and submitted to a search of his phone, which allegedly contains hundreds of photographs of naked people.
A woman who is expecting her first child and lives in New Lexington has raised concerns about sending her child to school with WSYX. “I’m just anxious because I don’t know whether or not I should homeschool him and believe that I’m qualified enough to teach him, or whether or not I should just send him to public school and put his education in the hands of God. Jessica Hughes expressed her confusion. “You just have no way of knowing who your kids are going to hang out with,” “I’m going to assume you’ve done your research on the business. That you’ve come up with a great choice.” A minor for a sexual purpose is a federal offense that carries a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and can result in a sentence of up to 30 years.
A mandatory prison sentence of five to twenty years must be served for distributing or receiving child pornography. This sentence must be served consecutively. Wolfe appeared in court Friday afternoon and is not listed on any Ohio jail or prison records at this time. Next week will see a detention hearing. The judge issued an order placing him in the custody of the United States Marshals Service until that time. In February, he was first arrested for allegations that were only local.
